Case Study about Carla's Life a Small Coastal Town Girl

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1NURSING
Social determinants characteristics:
The case study is about Carla, a 54 year old woman who was born in a small coastal
mining town. She married John in her teens and had two children by the age of 21 years. Due to
the separation of her husband after the birth of their second child, she has constantly struggled to
balance her work responsibilities and caring for her children. Looking at her demographic
characteristics, it can be said that living in small own is a major barrier for her in getting
adequate unemployment. Unlike her other friends, she could not move to the city. According to
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2018), about the 29% of the Australian population
were living in rural remote areas in the year 2017. The main challenges facing this group of
Australian population is poor health and welfare outcomes compared to people living in cities
due to geographic isolation. This issue was clearly evident for Carla as shefaced many challenges
in getting access to proper income and work. People living outer regions are at high risk of daily
smoking, physical inactivity and obesity (AIHW, 2018). Carla is at similar risk too. The main
causes behind such outcomes are poor employment opportunities in rural areas and its impact on
other determinants of health. Hence, the socio-demographic characteristic of rural location and
poor income puts Carla at major risk of poor health.
Key social determinants of health:
From the review of Carla’s case study, the key social determinants of health (SDH) that
are evident in the case study include employment, education, health and income. Carla and her
children have struggled in all these areas because of living in rural location as well as being
challenged by their life stressors. For example, employment is a major SDH and it is an
independent predictor of depression, chronic disease and poor physical functioning in an
individual (Hergenrather et al., 2015). This is clearly evident in the case study as John, Carla’s
husband developed depression after losing his job. He used to help Carla financially by working
in a mine. However, when their younger child was five years, the mine closed and John could not
find consistent employment. Thus, employment issues and John’s accidence resulted in
depression for him. The impact of employment was seen in the life of Carla too. Due to the need
to care for her children and poor employment opportunities in town, she was struggling with
income too. The report by AIHW (2019) indicates that Australians living in rural and remote
areas have shorter lives, high risk of disease and poor health outcomes because of differences in